Where Life Has Led
by wtchiktonks
Summary: This is eventually going to be a Bellice fic. Rated M for later chapters. Pairings include B/E and B/A. Don't like, don't read. I own nothing, characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of it's characters. They belong solely to Stephenie Meyer, though I'd love to have my own Bella. Oh wait, I sort of do. Thanks for being the first of my inspirations to write this.**

June 20th, the day I am to be married. The day I, Bella Swan, will start the rest of my hopefully blissful life. It's only two days away, and we just finished the rehearsal dinner. Charlie and Renee, my wonderful parents, keep assuring me that they are okay with this. It's been two years, three months and ten days since the accident…as well as my life spiraling out of control. The only two people that have built me up since are my daughter Renesmee, and my best friend/fiance. I do suppose, however, that I should start at the beginning.

I was a sophomore when I decided to move back home with my dad. Renee had gone through a lot of phases of wanting to, and not wanting to, be committed to someone else. Charlie accepted the separation, and so did I. The problem with it though, was that I got to choose who I lived with. Since I wanted to see more than just the green I'd grown to slightly detest, I chose my mother. However I'd only agreed to be with her if she allowed me to come back for at least one summer month to spend with not only my dad, but my best friend Alice. Once she agreed, it was goodbye green, hello desert. Alice and I kept in constant contact…first through the phone, then through emails. We would talk every day, and help each other with homework even though she was a year younger. By the time I'd entered junior high, she was doing high school level math. So, she helped me with that, and I helped her with History. Every summer when I would visit Charlie, I would spend a lot of my days over at the Cullens. Carlisle would pick me up in the mornings after his graveyard shift at the hospital, and Alice would greet me at the door with a hug. Charlie would then pick me up after his shift as Police Chief, and we'd have dinner together every night. My weekends would vary between time with Alice, and time with my dad. If he went down to La Push for fishing though, it was a surefire way of me staying with Alice. My freshman year of high school was the start of wishing to be back home. There were over 700 in my class, which meant at least 40 students in each classroom. I didn't struggle too horribly at first, but I was also in a lot of honors classes so things became harder a lot quicker. It was about halfway through the year before I begged Renee to allow me to move back. Being that far though, she wouldn't allow it, so I had to for the first time ever, ask Edward Cullen for help. Edward had always just been Alice's gawky, nerdy, older brother to me. I'd always though he'd grow up to be some kind of crazy scientist, or join some well known orchestra because he was a great pianist. Never did I think that in getting his help for Chemistry, would I start liking him. After spending that half a year on the phone with him, I was headed back to Forks. Before I even saw Charlie though, I'd arranged to spend a couple of days with the Cullens. Esme, Alice's mom, picked me up from the airport on June nineteenth. I was going to help throw Edward a surprise party, though Esme and I both figured he knew. He was just turning sixteen, but Carlisle had already gotten him a car. When we arrived at the Cullen home, I wasn't greeted by Alice, but by Edward…who'd grown a foot since I'd last physically seen him, and definitely out of his awkwardness. I'm pretty sure at that point, I had to pick my jaw up off the ground. That was the moment I knew everything had changed within me.

I spent a good few hours talking to Edward, getting to know him better…only to find out that he'd recently started working on a piece to get himself into Julliard early. When I asked him to play for me, he granted me the pleasure of allowing me to sit next to him as he played. In that instant, I was head over heels…and at the time, there was no looking back. You have to forgive me though, I was only fourteen. After listening to him play, he asked me a lot of questions. It wasn't as if we'd missed a lot since he helped me with my homework throughout my spring semester in Phoenix, but I was stupid enough to reveal absolutely everything to him. From telling him about how I thought he was a dork before, to telling him how absolutely gorgeous I now thought he was. Was it a mistake? Well if it was, it didn't seem it because the next thing I knew, he was giving me the most magical kiss. It was my first as well, and in that, he told me he'd stay and put of Julliard for a couple more years. "I'm still young" is what he told me.

Alice never did come home, and when I asked Esme about it, she said "it's nothing dear, she'll tell you when she's back in the morning." I spent the night in her room, waiting for her to get back. I couldn't fight off the sleep, and only awoke when I felt her arm go around my waist. We always slept together, and when we were younger, the only way we felt safe was if we were really close while sleeping. It sort of carried over into our teen years though. Never did I think for her it would mean so much more though. When I woke up, she threw the covers over herself and wouldn't even peek out. I had to battle her in getting the covers off, only to see a black eye, and a broken arm. That's where it all really started.

"Allie cat, what on earth happened? Are you okay?" My face showed absolute concern, and I was worried when she immediately started crying. "Shh come on talk to me. You're my best friend…we always talk about everything. What's going on?" She only shook her head and whispered something incoherently. I had to take her face and hold it in my hands for her to stop hyperventilating. I knew she'd always had problems when it came to telling people things that were very secretive or hard to explain, but this was the worst I'd seen her. "Alice look at me. Whatever this is, it's probably not as bad as you think. In fact, we'll probably laugh about it all later." Finally she calmed down enough to speak, but everything was so soft that I had a hard time hearing the full story. From the pieces that I could hear, I'd gathered that one of the other girls at school, Jessica Stanley, had gotten really upset after finding out her revelation and beat her up. I got her even calmer and hugged her, which is when she backed away from me. Alice never backed away from a hug. Looking up at me with tear filled eyes, she spoke a little louder. "Bella, I'm…I'm not like you. I'm…I'm gay."


	2. Understanding

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of it's characters. They belong solely to Stephenie Meyer, though I'd love to have my own Bella. Oh wait, I sort of do. Thanks for being the first of my inspirations to write this. Thank you for all that reviewed the first chapter!**

Alice had kept herself at a distance and would not get any closer, no matter if I got closer to her. Any time I got closer, she backed further away until she was up against the corner of her room. I was unsure at that point what exactly she was afraid of. Finally, I was able to pull her into a hug, and I refused to let her go. What right did Jessica have in beating her up? What right would anyone have for that matter? Now it made me fear telling anyone, Alice included, that I'd recently discovered I was bisexual. Feeling that, I had to choose my words carefully. "Alice I don't care. You are still Alice. You are still my best friend. You'll always be my best friend no matter what. This changes nothing…" but oh how it did for me. This was going to make things a little more complex for me. I really enjoyed Edward's company now, and had quite the crush on him. But, I'd also known Alice for my whole life and even being best friends, I always felt like there was some more meaning to our relationship.

"But I…but…Jessica…she…and you don't…" Alice would not allow herself to stop crying no matter how much I held her, or how tightly.

"I know Allie…shh it's okay." I couldn't do anything more than keep assuring her that it was okay. "Alice come on…sit with me for a few minutes and we can talk alright?" Alice only nodded her head and walked quietly to the bed, sitting down at the foot of it. At first I kneeled down in front of her. Taking both of her hands, even with one in a cast, I looked into her eyes. "Look, how long have we been friends? Our whole lives. What makes you believe that I would ever change how I feel about you as my friend for something so mediocre? You have been everything and everyone for me. So why would this change things?"

Alice looked scared to even talk, so I got up on the bed with her and held her. Finally, she allowed herself to talk, but it was very quiet. "Bella, have you ever…had feelings for someone and you couldn't tell them?" I nodded, and she looked at me, "well that's how it is for me. I can't tell people how I feel because, those that I want to tell, well…they don't like girls. Do you remember Angela Weber?" Again, I nodded. Angela was one of our really good friends when we were little. We'd only stopped talking as much when Jessica moved to town. "I, she's…" Alice's shoulders slumped slightly and she continued, "she's beautiful and I really like her. But I know that she doesn't like me. And the whole reason Jessica beat me up, in finding out I was like this, was because she found my journal and saw that I wrote about Angela. Why did Jessica do this?" By then, Alice had tears rolling down her cheeks again. What could I do? She was my best friend, my confidant. All I could think was to hold her tighter, without hurting her.

"Alice…do you remember when we were little, and we'd talk about everything? Well, back then we were just silly girls, who only cared about our toys and thought boys had cooties. But we grew up, and somewhere along the way, some of our friends from back then, decided that growing up meant growing apart too. But you know…sometimes we don't have to grow apart quite so much. Have you talked to Angela at all in the past year even?"

"No…" Alice shook her head quickly, almost violently. "Angela is always with Jessica. Jessica has hated me since she moved here. Even you know that. I think…I think that's what made it all worse. There was nothing that I could do once she found my journal. And I couldn't talk to Angela first. Jessica told her everything before she started pounding on me. She…Angela that is…she ran away. She just, ran."

When things had finally settled down, it was only for them to build back up again. Now was one of those moments. Now, I'm not much bigger than Alice, but it's enough that I had to pull her onto my lap so that she would just allow me to hold her very tightly. Her crying had returned, and she couldn't control the sobbing. Still, she thought that I was angry with her.

"You know, I could run out of dry space on my shirt, and I'm nowhere near the tissue box. What if…I called Angela? I mean, I'm sure she's bound to come over for Edward's party anyway, but then maybe I could go meet up with her for a little time before? It might at least help. I could see if maybe…" but before I knew it, Alice was cutting me off.

"No. No no no Bella I couldn't. I…she wouldn't believe you even if you were Jessica that this means nothing. It's nothing. I like her but, she doesn't like me. And I can't change that. I don't want her to change for me either. If she…if Angela doesn't like me like that, then it's fine. I'm the one that needs to grow up about all of this."

"You need to do no such thing. You're barely getting into high school. Things like this only get better over time. You'll see. I wish I could make you see. But you will…and when you do, things will be better. I promise. Best friend's code of honor."

After convincing Alice that I wasn't mad, and helping her clean up a little, we went down to help Esme. Esme was the most understanding mother I knew, and she kept a very good watch over both Edward and Alice. This was the first time she was unable to prevent what happened. Lucky for the family, Carlisle was a doctor and was allowed to cast Alice himself. When we were setting things up, Alice had a lot of trouble doing things that she'd normally be great at. After a while, I told her to just go sit down and her mom and I could take care of it. Alice, being the perfectionist, looked over everything but did stay out of actually trying to put up decorations. Little did she know, while she was double checking everything, I was making a very important phone call to one Angela Weber. Before the party, I would meet up with Angela and have a nice long talk, without Jessica.

**Sorry loyal readers, I know I only have this plus the prologue/first chapter up. I'm working on it. I promise. And I know that you're all kind of already at the point of "where does the whole of Bellice fit in?" but I assure you, it's there. I just don't want to get too ahead of myself. Keep reading, and reviewing. It helps me. To my personal muse, thank you.**


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of it's characters. They belong solely to Stephenie Meyer, though I'd love to have my own Bella. Oh wait, I sort of do. Thanks for being the first of my inspirations to write this.

**Agreeing to meet me about an hour before the party was the perfect plan! Esme had forgotten to get ice, of all things, and I offered to go get it with Rosalie. Rosalie is Esme's niece, well practically. See, she's dating Esme's actual nephew Emmett. Anyway, she went to Forks High, where they met, and she offered to take me so that I could talk to Angela. Rosalie isn't my biggest fan, but she explained it's because she's jealous of the friendship I hold with both Alice and Edward. Anyway, it took little time for us to get to the store, where Angela was waiting. Rosalie decided to go find Edward something extra for his birthday so that I could talk to Angela alone.**

"**Oh my…Bella? Is that you?"**

**Wow, I guess I had changed a bit since the last time she'd seen me. When I was younger, my hair was kept shorter…and I always wore tee shirts. My hair was now down to the middle of my back and wavy, and I had a tendency to wear peasant tops. "Yea, it's me. Look at you…all grown up too." We both laughed. It was as thought we hadn't missed a step.**

"**So, Alice? Bella, I don't really know what to say. I…hmm. Well you saw Alice this morning right? Was it really bad?" There was a general concern echoing in her voice, which was good right?**

"**Jessica did a number on her, that's for sure. Broken arm, quite a few bruises to her ribs…and a busted lip. For Alice never fighting anyone, I'd say Jessica got her pretty good."**

**By now, we were sitting on the bench outside of the market. Angela had pulled her legs up and was holding her knees with all her might. "All over me. Bella I can't… I ran away for a reason. I was scared. Scared that Jessica would hurt me too." Angela had turned her face away from me. She wasn't crying, but, wait scared Jessica would hurt her? They were best friends right?**

"**What do you mean Jessica would have hurt you too?"**

"**I…you won't say anything will you?" I shook my head no. "I love Alice. I always have. You know how, when we were little, my mom gave me a camera…and I made everyone model for me?" I nodded my head. It was a distant memory for sure, but a very clear one. Alice was in ballet at the time, so she always dressed up in her dance costumes. "The only pictures I kept were of Alice, and I mean, that probably sounds crazy right? I'm so confused." Angela bit down on her lower lip, a nervous habit she'd always held. "Do you think she'd ever forgive me for running away? For being scared?"**

**Alice was one of the absolute most forgiving people I knew, granted she'd probably never forgive Jessica, but I don't blame her. "I think if you were willing to take the time to sit down with her, and explain, she'd at least listen. But knowing how she feels about you…I'm pretty sure she'd forgive you. Why don't you come back with Rosalie and I, and that way you can talk to her before the party?"**

"**But Jessica…"**

"**Screw Jessica! Angela look, you have two options. You can come back with me, talk to Alice, and be happy…or you can come to the party with Jess, not ever tell Alice how you feel, and regret it every day of high school. Your choice."**

**Angela sighed. She knew I was right, as I often was. Hey, I didn't say always!**

"**Would Rosalie be okay with another Soph in her car?"**

"**I'm sure I can work it out. Give me a few minutes. I sort of need her advice before we go back." With that, Angela nodded and I practically sprinted to find Rose. I needed not only her advice, but her help…with Edward. Quickly enough, I found Rosalie. I just asked if she'd let Angela ride back with us, to which she agreed…then asked about Edward. She knew the most about him. They had actually dated shortly his freshman year, her sophomore year…until they figured out how alike they were, and how awkward it was.**

**Rosalie's answer was actually quite simple, yet detailed enough to help me out a lot. "Well, you've been talking to him for about a year now, surely you didn't just talk about academia?" I nodded. "Alright, well…he's modest but sometimes flaunts what he's good at. He hates when people stare. He also hates when you agree to something that in actuality, you don't like doing. Don't ever press him to do something you know he doesn't like either, at least not until later on. Mostly, be you Bella."**

"**I sort of have a problem though Rosalie…"**

"**And that is what exactly?"**

"**Can a person like two people at the same time? I mean, say you'd liked someone for longer than you care to admit, but then this new person comes along and bam, you like them too. Is that something that's even possible? I mean…"**

**Rosalie cut me off. "So, what you're saying is that you like someone aside from Edward, someone as in Alice?"**

"**I didn't say me, so what you're assum…"**

"**Assuming nothing. Bella it's written clearly all over your face. Esme is very understanding of Alice since she came out…but obviously the rest of Forks isn't ready to accept it. What you've done with talking to Angela, well…that may help Alice. It may also help you in the long run. But Edward…well he's a good guy. Don't go breaking his heart if really you're more interested in Alice."**

**Oh no, I felt those little pricks behind my eyes…the onset of tears. I couldn't cry. I wouldn't. Not in front of Rosalie, and especially not in front of Angela after not having seen her for so long. No, I had to wipe my eyes quickly before anything fell…I couldn't cry.**

"**Bella it'll be okay. Really. Nothing is set in stone. You don't have to chose today, tomorrow, or even the day after that. You need to just take a deep breath," and I did believe me, "and just let things happen as they will. Time will tell. Now, let's get headed back before they wonder what happened to us."**

**Before I silently made my way into the passengers seat of Rosalie's car, I grabbed Angela. We were back to the Cullens' home in no time…and who was there to greet us but a very surprised Alice…**

**My apologies for this taking so long. My muse has been lacking as of late. There has just been nothing there, and at the moment, it's very faint. I hope you like this chapter. I'll be writing more hopefully soon. Perhaps my muse will come back, or at least if not 100% then maybe 50%. That would be okay.**


	4. Chapter 4 Saved by Angela

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of it's characters. They belong solely to Stephenie Meyer, though I'd love to have my own Bella. **

Alice immediately pulled me inside, leaving a shocked Rosalie and Angela standing at a door slamming in their faces.

"Alice that wasn't very nice."

"You just brought…how could you…how could you have the nerve to…Isabella!"

Okay, that was pushing the limit. No one, and I mean no one, called me Isabella. Yes, it was my given name but it sounded so old that I refused to use it.

"Alice look, it was either I went and talked to her and brought her back…or watch you suffer in complete and pure misery this year at school. I chose the first and I'm sorry you find that so wrong but…"

"Bella I…" Alice was at a loss for words. She didn't look angry so much as she looked…nervous? Wait, Alice was nervous and that's why she had that reaction? Well if I would have known she'd be nervous like this I might have called to tell her first.

"Come on, give her a chance to talk to you. It'll be fine. And if you need an interruption just give me some sort of signal. I'm going to help your mom and Rosalie finish getting the decorations in place before everyone gets here."

Alice simply stared at me. Now was the time that I couldn't read the expression on her face. I was forcing her into the situation and I knew that sometimes that wasn't for the best, but this time…it was. Rosalie had already opened the door back up and was in the kitchen with Esme. Angela was still standing shyly in front of the open door. I nudged Alice a little to get her to invite Angela in.

"Um, hi…Ang. Come…come in." Alice was definitely nervous. Why she would be? Oh, I knew why. It was the same reason that I was nervous to talk to Edward later, which I knew would happen. First he'd blame me for this big deal of a party his parents were throwing, then he'd do something weird, and then things would go back to normal between the two of us. Or well, that's how it usually worked out anyway, but I was nervous for part one of the entire thing.

I gave Alice and Angela some space. I knew Alice would need it, and having someone else around when you're about to talk to your crush isn't all that comfortable. I mean, okay I didn't really have a crush on Edward when I lived in Phoenix with my mom, but I got nervous if she ever came in while I was on the phone with hi…oh my gosh I did have a crush on him before I got back! Now what was I going to do when he talk…

"Bella."

Oh no, that was…he was…and I was…and, oh crap. I turned around and tried my best to manage at least a small smile. Wait, was that a smile that I just gave him. Why wasn't I saying anything. You know 'hi Edward I didn't hear you come in' or 'oh hey Edward'. Nothing. I was a mute.

"Um…Bella is everything okay?"

He was asking me if everything was okay. _Oh sure, great, yea it's fine, I'm fine. "Yea, hi. Sorry I didn't know you'd be back before this whole…well…surprise?"_

"_It's fine I knew my mom was planning something. Though I didn't really expect you to be behind it too. Very unlike you Bells."_

_Wait, what did he just…"You, you haven't called me that since we were little. And that was only when you wanted to taunt me. What's going…"_

"_I'm not going to taunt you, or tease you. We were little, like you said. I kind of, well, last night I wanted to talk but I knew you'd be too worried about Alice so I decided against it. It's just…well…Bella, what I'm trying to say…"_

_Great, now Edward was nervous, and it was making me nervous that he was nervous, and Alice was in the other room and really nervous talking to Angela, and Angela was probably nervous too. What had I come home to? Wait, Edward was talking to me and I was totally zoning out…_

"_Did you just hear anything I said?"_

"_Sorry, Edward, I just…"_

"_You sort of went completely Bella on me?"_

_I shoved him hard in the shoulder. He only laughed though and took my hand in his. Wait, he…my hand was starting to feel kind of clammy, and I knew that I was starting to go flush._

"_Bella, since my parents are making a huge deal of this party, will you be my escort when they announce me to the room full of people? I know that, being the center of attention isn't really your thing, but…it's not mine either and I thought, maybe if I had someone with me, it wouldn't be so bad?"_

"_Yea, sure, I mean…yes."_

_Great, what had I just done? I said yes to escorting Edward into the middle of a room full of people when his parents announced that it was his birthday._

"_One more thing, if I might?"_

_I felt my nerves growing stronger by the second. "Sure, anything…"_

"_Bella…beautiful, sensible, extremely bright Bella…" oh great, what was this? "Bella I started liking you about two summers ago, well, not just as a friend but more like…well I started noticing you. I would do just about anything if maybe you and I could perhaps, well, go out some time? Maybe we could see a movie, or go to dinner…or get coffee?"_

_Wait, hold on, Edward was asking me out? And it wasn't a confident 'will you go out with me' it was a shy, awkward, but very cute way of asking me to go out. I'm not a hopeless romantic but this was, okay maybe I was turning into one?_

"_Edward you…and I…and…" oh God, I was starting to feel kind of dizzy. Wait, no, not just dizzy I was actually hyperventilating. Why on earth was I doing that?_

"_Bella, Bells…sit down." Edward had guided me to a chair at the table in the kitchen. "It's fine if you don't want to, I just thought that maybe you and I could hang out…"_

_Edward looked disappointed, but here I was, trying to control my breathing. I was being completely swooned by someone I'd known my entire life, and yet I was freaking out as if he were the hottest boy in school and he just ditched all the other, prettier girls, for me. Wait, he did kind of do that, and he was pretty hot. Oh…my…I had to put my head between my legs just to not look at him. I felt him let go of my hand but I reached out to grab it back. I wanted to go out with him. I wanted to know what it was like to be cared about by someone other than one of my parents…_

"_Edward wait. Don't go…"_

_He kneeled down in front of me and took my hand back. I had to get some courage in me right? Okay, maybe it wouldn't be a lot, but, something at least._

"_I want…I want to go out with you. Sorry, I just got really, extremely, undoubtedly nervous. That's never happened before." I finally looked up to see him looking directly back into my eyes. "Yes."_

_Right then, we heard a squeal of delight coming from the other room. It was from Alice. Well, something must have gone right because she came bounding in, Angela in tow, to see me sitting in the chair with Edward still kneeling in front of me._

"_Angela and I are going to go on a date. Well, or try to go on one anyway. Bella, are you okay?"_

_Oh great, I was going to go on a date with her brother, I looked like hell just washed over me, and she was my best friend. I was going on a date with my best friend's brother…and…the panic in me started to rise again and I had to look away from Alice._

"_Bella…" She and Angela both came around the other side of the chair to look at me._

"_Edward and I…are…"_

"_Well we're going to be doing that too little sis."_

_Another squeal of delight came from Alice. Wait, what did she know that I didn't?_

"_You finally got the guts to ask her Edward? I'm shocked, really. I thought it would wait until after Christmas break really…"_

"_Very funny Alice." Edward looked down at me and lifted my face in his cupped hands "Maybe you'd like a few minutes to talk to one of these girls here?"_

_I nodded, but I grabbed Angela's hand and looked up at her. I needed to talk to another girl, but, Alice was Edward's sister and that would just be weird right? Alice took the hint though and pulled Edward out of the room to leave Angela and I to talk. This time, she was all the support I could use!_


End file.
